


Coming Home

by babykid528



Category: Little Women - Alcott
Genre: Alternate Canon, F/M, Minor Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-28
Updated: 2009-12-28
Packaged: 2017-10-05 10:25:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/40713
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/babykid528/pseuds/babykid528
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>It shouldn't surprise her then to find Laurie clinging to the rotting post when she arrives. Laurie, consumed with his grief, lonely in it, like Jo once was. Laurie, who just lost his child.</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	Coming Home

**Author's Note:**

> **WARNING:** There is a minor character death in here that makes this AU for Little Men and Jo's Boys (since she's a bigger character in the later books).  
> **A/N:** This was prompted by and written for [](http://penny-lane-42.livejournal.com/profile)[**penny_lane_42**](http://penny-lane-42.livejournal.com/) over at [](http://1297.livejournal.com/profile)[**1297**](http://1297.livejournal.com/)'s [Second Chances Fic Meme](http://1297.livejournal.com/18051.html). Her prompt can be found [here](http://1297.livejournal.com/18051.html?thread=1171843#t1171843). It's sadder than I had originally intended, but I hope you enjoy it. &lt;3   
> Unbeta'd at the moment, because I am impatient and I feel guilty for bothering [](http://karaokegal.livejournal.com/profile)[**karaokegal**](http://karaokegal.livejournal.com/) so much this weekend, lol! So, mistakes and typos are my own.   
> **Disclaimer:** The characters contained with belong to Ms. Alcott and her excellent March family universe. &lt;333

The soil atop little Beth Laurence's grave is hardly settled before Jo finds herself, once again, making her way through the ironically sunny, Spring forest towards the fence. When her sister died, her Beth, she had made this same trek. She's older now, slower now, not as violently consumed with her grief this time around: certainly not as lonely in it. She's heading here more on instinct. More because she feels drawn to the spot. Like she's needed.

It shouldn't surprise her then to find Laurie clinging to the rotting post when she arrives. Laurie, consumed with his grief, lonely in it, like Jo once was. Laurie, who just lost his child.

"Oh Teddy!" She breathes out the exclamation loudly into the still wood as it echoes with his pained sobs.

He turns to her, abruptly. Hopefully. Like she's a savior, his angel, and she can't resist crossing to him and embracing him like she once did, before she married Friedrich, before he married Amy, before he even proposed to her younger self and their friendship was altered forever. Jo clings to him, trying to engulf him in her now maternal, calming presence, but failing. It's needy: the hug of their lost childhood, of old friends, of times before they had families of their own and grown up responsibilities. They grip one another, melting into each other, like they once did when her Beth first contracted Scarlet Fever, when Jo had her first glimpse of the potential emptiness of a life without Beth. Before Laurie went off to college and Jo threw away a perfectly good marriage proposal from the best friend she'd ever had, aside from her sisters. Before she got a taste of what life without Laurie was like.

Now Laurie's lost in his own grief. His child taken as unfairly as her sister was taken. More unfairly, her Beth would remind her if she were still alive, because young Beth Laurence had been alive for so little a time in comparison. Jo's almost surprised to realize she's crying along with him now, after days of remaining strong for her young sons.

"I'm sorry, so sorry, Teddy," she chants into his shoulder. "So so sorry."

He can't answer her. He can barely breath between sobs. So she clings to him, whispering comfort, and notices that after a short while he's quieted and stopped. It's silent once again.

The last time they stood in this spot together, Laurie had asked her to be his forever and she had responded by breaking his heart. This time, she's helping him put the pieces of himself back together again, like she couldn't when she was the cause of his emotional collapse. So when his lips find her's in a not-quite-platonic kiss and Jo closes her eyes, leaning into him, she doesn't feel guilty. In fact, it's just like she's finally come home again, for a short moment.

And then it's broken.


End file.
